Economy

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 22:20 UTC

  Greek bond holders prepare for 50% ‘hair cut’ discussions involving 100bn Euros

  

  Greece and holders of its debt hope to agree on a proposal to halve its privately held debt within weeks, both sides said on Thursday, raising hopes that a key pillar of Greece's 130 billion Euros bailout is still on track.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 20:01 UTC

  Latin American economy has entered cooling phase, says Brazilian think-tank

  

  The Latin American economy has entered a declining phase and will further slow down in coming months according to a report from the Brazilian think-tank Getulio Vargas Foundation, FGV.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 19:56 UTC

  Germany and France clash over a greater role for the European Central bank

  

  German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated Thursday her opposition to a greater role for the European Central Bank in helping to solve the Euro zone debt crisis, saying political action was required.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 19:53 UTC

  Moody downgrades ratings of ten German public-sector banks

  

  Moody’s ratings agency decided on Thursday to surprisingly downgrade the rating of ten German public-sector banks. This is the first time Europe’s largest economy in the region, which keeps the Euro zone afloat, is hit.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 18:54 UTC

  Uruguay is Mexico’s strategic partner in Mercosur says President Calderon

  

  The Mexican president underlined the strategic importance of Uruguay since it is the only Mercosur member that has a free trade agreement with Mexico, thus making it the ‘strategic partner’ of Mexico in Mercosur.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 07:08 UTC

  Mercosur is not moving but Uruguay “will not stay put licking its wounds”

  

  Uruguayan president Jose Mujica said that Mercosur “is not moving forward or backwards” but is certainly working much better than the European Union where old experienced nations “made a mess of it”. Nevertheless, Uruguay will not stay put “licking its wounds”, it will look for other trade links.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 07:04 UTC

  Top banker forecasts ‘dollar run’ in Argentina will dissolve: plenty of reserves

  

  The former head of the Argentine Central Bank, Mario Blejer assured on Wednesday that in the exchange market “tension has been created which will only start to dissolve as and when we minimize the analysis of the subject.”

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 06:56 UTC

  Moody’s downgrades Brazilian meat corporation Marfrig from stable to negative

  

  Credit ratings agency Moody's changed its outlook for Brazilian meat processor Marfrig from stable to negative, citing what it feels is a deterioration in Marfrig's credit viability due to strong competition in the Brazilian protein sector in recent months, higher commodity prices, a global economic slowdown and currency volatility.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 06:52 UTC

  US debt soars past 15tn while another political storm is brewing in Congress

  

  The US government's debt load topped the 15 trillion dollars mark Wednesday, as politicians in Congress continued to battle over how to cut spending. Treasury figures showed the burden of federal borrowing reached 15,033,607,255,920.32, up 55.8 billion from Tuesday.

• Thursday, November 17th 2011 - 03:45 UTC

  Euro crisis had heads rolling in the IMF; European Department chief removed

  

  The head of the International Monetary Fund's European department quit less than a year into the job and was replaced by a veteran staffer as the European debt crisis worsens.